Some attempts have been made to develop an apparatus for winding and tying ribbon into bows of various sizes and designs. In recent years commercially tied bows have become popular, and devices for tying such bows are used in floral shops, gift shops, etc., and on a smaller scale are used in homes for making bows for gift wrap. Examples of such devices are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,377,674; 4,454,968; and 3,044,670. U.S. Pat. No. 3,377,674 is designed primarily for making tassels and pompoms, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,044,670 is primarily designed for making small bows for gift wrapping in a non-commercial environment. Neither of these devices offers the structure capable of attaining the level of versatility necessary in a commercial establishment. The device shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,454,968 teaches a relatively complex device having a plurality of movable spindles. However, the spindles are in a relatively fixed formation of two groups and are movable generally in groups toward and away from each other. Therefore, the versatility of that device is limited and, further, the mechanical structure is expensive to produce.
On the other hand, the present invention offers total versatility in use and economy in production for both commercial and non-commercial environments. The present invention is a device for making bows in a variety of sizes and shapes with speed and efficiency. The device is comprised essentially of a base member and a plurality of large and small pegs which are movable to various fixed positions in a plurality of apertures on the base member according to a variety of bow designs and sizes. To further increase the efficiency and versatility, the base member may be supported on an easel-like stand for working larger bows in an upright position. An area of cork-like material is laminated along at least one side edge of the base member to receive an anchor means for holding the end(s) of the ribbon strand in place during winding and tying.
The wide versatility of arrangements of the pegs in the apertures on the base member is achieved by the pattern of apertures and utilization of both small and large pegs. The arrangement of apertures and pegs will be explained in detail below. Use of the large pegs improves the finished appearance of bows formed from wide strands of ribbon because of the increased radius of curvature of the larger pegs. Further, the ribbon may be wrapped around a combination of large and small pegs, placed varying distances apart, to form bows which have loops of differing length and curvature.
It was a primary objective of the present invention to provide an improved apparatus for tying bows which would be more efficient in making a variety of bows, and one which would be more economical to produce for both commercial and non-commercial environments. Other and further objectives and modifications will become apparent when the following detailed description is studied in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.